Creativity does not select its outlets

Changes in Wacom and the future

I am leading the product management team globally. While I am ordinarily based in Germany, I travel a lot around the world and spend most of my time in Japan. I have worked for Wacom for a total of 4.5 years, and have seen very rapid and extensive change, both in technology and in the market in general during that time. In this period of change, we see great opportunities for Wacom's to deliver great products and solutions in the future.

Relying on creativity

Wacom developed its cordless pen tablet in 1984, and today, has grown to become a brand that is loved and trusted by the world’s top creators to people who draw as a hobby. Wacom is constantly expressing professional creativity in a direct way, and we have chosen the responsibility to help bringing out their talent; continuously striving and researching to achieve high level quality to respond to these customers’ high standards and expectations. Meanwhile we are also providing great tools and products to enhance consumer’s who are not artists but express their every day creativity during their life.

Write and Create

The act of writing/creating is not limited to professional creators. Simple memos, drafting ideas, letters, signatures... from children to adults, at home, at school or at the office, people use paper and pens in all kinds of situations. Transferring ideas from the brain on to paper on a daily basis. This in itself is creativity in writing/drawing. I believe that our Bamboo products and solutions, which we have recently released, are the ideal tools for this.

Changes in environment and Wacom technology

Furthermore, there have been great advances in the last few years in terms of mobile devices. A large number of people have become accustomed to interacting with tablet devices such as PC touch panel monitors, smartphones, iPad etc. in their daily lives. I believe that the possibilities for Wacom, to make use of our knowledge, experience and technological expertise, have grown immensely and will enable us to deliver great experiences to customers.

The cloud is changing our lives

In today's life it has become possible to share all kinds of information with people instantaneously, changing our lives completely. For example, If I purchase music files while I’m here in Tokyo, my wife back home in Germany is able to listen to it immediately, and we are able to share our thoughts on it when we next speak. Sharing information instantaneously in this way is something we were never able to do until now. This so called cloud will be more and more relevant for people.

Creativity has no boundaries

The development of technology and network has gone as far as redefining how we work. The Cintiq Companion family of products for example is a set of purely mobile devices for professional creative customers. We can say that one is now able to easily have their own personal studio or atelier wherever they happen to be. Creativity now no longer depends on a particular location to express itself.

Creativity for all

Widely standardized tablet devices and cloud technology, and the ever-changing workspace. These elements have a large effect on our vision. It can perhaps be said, that Wacom’s dream is to support creativity from all angles using pen technology. Creativity does not exclusively belong to professionals. Nothing would make us happier than our products allowing all kinds of people to exert their own creativity in a wider and more enjoyable way.

Wacom's dreams and looking ahead

I believe we can say that our ultimate goal is to provide opportunities for people and by doing so impact people's lives in all kinds of possible ways. Writing/Drawing is something that civilization has always done since ancient times. I myself am excited to see what the future holds. I hope that you will join me in looking forward to what Wacom has in store for the future.